Zoologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist extraordinaire Ernst Haeckel revolutionized the science of biology creating a body of work encompassing 42 books containing 13,000 pages. He was also a member of more than ninety learned societies and scientific associations.
Educated and trained as a physician in the 1860’s he soon discovered his preference was not for patients, but for the study of the natural world.
As a child Ernst’s drawing and painting were among his favorite pursuits as was Botany and collecting specimens. Haeckel’s unique combination of science and art began when he was just 25 years old during a study trip to Italy.
In Messina, Sicily he discovered an ocean protozoa whose intricate mineral skeletons inspired him to begin his arduous documentation of thousands of previously unknown species. He created many of the biological terms currently in use today.
Terms attributed to Haeckels study of the natural world include anthropogeny, ecology, phylum, phylogeny, stem cell and the Kingdom Protista.
Being a strong advocate of Charles Darwin, Ernst’s next achievement was the mapping of a genealogical tree relating all known life forms. Not satisfied with that accomplishment he decided to create a map of the movements of humans throughout the world in an evolutionary scenario.
Tree of Life, published in the U.S. before 1923 and public domain in the U.S.
Many believe there is a dark side to Haeckel’s celebrated work in the form of “Scientific Racism.” Haeckel’s hypothesis divided humans into ten distinct races, Caucasian being ranked highest with primitives doomed to extinction.
In other words he believed the development of languages to be a “soft” evolutionary characteristic acquired and then passed down generationally. Races with the most potential were the Semitic and Indo-Germanic groups including Berber, Jewish, Greco-Roman and Germanic peoples.
I personally don’t believe he was engaging in scientific racism, but rather a view of the world based upon the times in which he lived. Knowledge was limited to the technology available and powers of observation, DNA and the human genome were yet to be discovered.
Ernst Haeckel was not only a brilliant zoologist, his naturalist inclinations and artistic abilities created an alchemy of intricate other worldly beauty as a legacy only he could leave humanity.
Ernst Haeckel (left) and his assistant Nicholas Maclay photographed in the Canary Islands in 1866,published in the U.S. before 1923 and public domain in the U.S.
Haeckel in his older years, published in the U.S. before 1923 and public domain in the U.S.
Select Images 2, 4 from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur Artforms of nature 1904